


Seven Nation Army

by redangeleve



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Armitage Hux Lives, Hux is no traitor, Kylo Ren kills them all, Long lives the First Order, M/M, but better than the Original, my TROS Fit-it, perhaps not perfect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-07
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:55:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22602805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redangeleve/pseuds/redangeleve
Summary: Ren had not seen him since that fateful day when Allegiant General Pryde nearly ended Hux's life. If the Imperial fossil hadn't given the order to send him a message that the spy had been found and dealt with, Ren would probably not have known about this fatal incident until it was too late. How could their plan have turned into such a disaster?
Relationships: Armitage Hux & Kylo Ren, Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren
Comments: 8
Kudos: 108





	Seven Nation Army

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Seven Nation Army](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22373491) by [redangeleve](https://archiveofourown.org/users/redangeleve/pseuds/redangeleve). 



Seven Nation Army

I'm gonna fight 'em all  
A seven nation army couldn't hold me back  
They're gonna rip it off  
Taking their time right behind my back

(The White Stripes, Seven Nation Army)

It almost looked like he was asleep when Kylo Ren looked at the General's face through the glass. The pale, almost colourless eyelashes lay still on the pale cheeks. In all the time Ren knew the other man, he had never seen him so relaxed. Even during the long hours of the night cycle, when they had lain side by side in the semi-darkness of his quarters, exhausted and satisfied, there had always been a tension in Hux, as if he didn't dare to let go, like he just couldn't. Only now, in this terrible state between life and death, had the lines of tension and the painstakingly maintained control been wiped from his features. But at what cost?

Ren had not seen him since that fateful day when Allegiant General Pryde nearly ended Hux's life. If the Imperial fossil hadn't given the order to send him a message that the spy had been found and dealt with, Ren would probably not have known about this fatal incident until it was too late.

How could their plan have turned into such a disaster? 

It had looked as if they were finally on the right track after Crait. Ren had understood that he needed the General to lead the First Order. He had even come to appreciate him after his crippled soul had at least experienced some kind of peace with Luke Skywalker's death. The betrayal his uncle had committed against him had finally been settled in his eyes. Even the visions of his failure, his catastrophic defeat at the hands of the scravenger girl, no longer weighed on him as heavily as before. It was not over yet. Kylo Ren believed he could defeat them if he could come to terms with himself, if he managed to bury a part of his dark past, and for that he needed Hux. He needed the control that the other man always had over himself, the cool calculation of the General, his unemotional, clear view of things.

After he had successfully defeated the urge to go for his throat, he realized that the contact with the stoic tactician rubbed off on him, his calmness also calmed him down and at least temporarily silenced the voices in his head. He became more stable, more balanced, no longer constantly on the verge of madness, which gave him the opportunity to notice for the first time the many little things about Hux that he hadn't noticed in all the years they had served on the same ship. Like the amber speckles in his green eyes. The bright, almost invisible freckles waiting to be exposed to the sun so that they could follow their destiny, turning his face into a map of spots, and the way the General always smelled of a mixture of standard soap, starched laundry and ginger tea. A smell that appealed to him. Through its association with Hux, Ren it was something orderly, consistent, soothing that grounded him. An anchor in the here and now. 

Ren's first attempt to explain this to him failed spectacularly. Hux hadn't understood that it wasn't a perfidious game when Ren revealed to him that he liked to sniff at him. Instead, the redhead had been staring at him as if the Supreme Leader had lost his mind before refusing to hear such remarks. But Ren had not given up. He wanted to discover more about Hux than just his smell. He wanted to know what his hair felt like when it wasn't fixed with pomade but was soft and smooth after an ultrasonic shower. He wanted to know what the General tasted like before he covered up his natural taste with his toothbrush and standard toiletries. And he wanted to know what sound Hux made when Ren broke open his controlled shell and gave him a rush of the highest ecstasy. It wasn't easy, but Ren was persevering and he was convincing and in the end he always got what he wanted, so at some point the General's resistance collapsed and he got answers to all these questions and more.

He had been pleased to discover that beneath Hux's brittle exterior lurked a brilliant mind that had only waited to surface and come up with unexpectedly creative ideas. Together they had devised a plan to infiltrate the resistance by leaking the rumour that there was a spy in the ranks of the First Order. General Organa was to be fed secondary but truthful information to make her believe the source, thereby leading her to their base of operations. Of course Ren would have preferred to have used someone else for the role of a double spy than the General, but Hux convinced him by arguing that the kind of information the resistance wanted was only available at the very highest level of command. A simple mechanic or assault Stormtrooper would never have come into possession of such valuable internals and would have been immediately exposed. As uncomfortable as he was with the idea, Ren had to agree with him, especially since they didn't want to involve anyone they didn't trust in the plan, and that was an astonishingly small number of people these days.

As frightening as the moment was when Palpatine's voice suddenly came to life, it seemed like a chance to pass on some information of value to Leia and her followers. The fact that the supposedly dead emperor had risen again would spread fear and terror among the resistance, which could only be good for the First Order. And the value of the information was rather small in the context, since it was to be assumed that Palpatine's resurrection would sooner or later become known in the whole galaxy anyway.

Indeed, the resistance took the bait, but the joy lasted only a short time, as it coincided exactly with the arrival of Allegiant General Pryde at the fleet. A circumstance that had not been an accident. Enric Pryde as a relic of a long forgotten empire had already served under Darth Vader before he later joined Snoke and had become part of a second level of command since the Starkiller fiasco. Nevertheless, even after the Emperor's presumed death he had always remained secretly loyal to him, so that he was now placed in the as the fleet commander before Hux to make sure that the First Order stayed on course even in Ren's absence. The Master of the Knights of Ren was to find and eliminate the scavenger girl for him, while Pryde took the fleet for him to Exegol. Palpatine wanted to secure his control of the ships even if his plan to gain Ren as his weapon would fail. 

That was the point where everything started to falter. Under Pryde's watchful eye, Kylo Ren and General Hux had no choice but to play tricks on him. The thing with Snoke had taught Ren to never want to serve a master again, but he still had to lull the Emperor to safety. To avoid arousing suspicion, he had to distance himself from Hux and turn him into the rabid dog Ren had once seen in him. It was not difficult for them to fall back into their old roles, as they shared the assumption that it would not be for long. But then came the capture of Chewbacca and the failed attempt to free him, forcing Hux to improvise without consulting Ren. If he allowed the resistance fighters to be executed, they would never know the location of their base of operations, so Hux put all his eggs in one basket. Although it was a waste of valuable resources, it was the only way to kill his own men before they could carry out their order, then he gave up his cover and identified himself to the resistance as a supposed spy to help them escape. The blaster shot in the shoulder had been Ren's idea when they had played through possible scenarios of a discovery, but although Hux tried to act convincingly, he still couldn't fool Pryde.

Hux's life had almost been extinguished, no more than a faint flicker in the ocean of the Force, when Ren sent two of his knights to rescue him. As much as he longed to see the General with his own eyes to make sure Pryde's shot hadn't killed him, that he was still alive, Ren could not give in to the urge. He wasn't even allowed to think about him after the ambulance shuttle had taken off, to avoid drawing Palaptin's attention in this direction. All he could do was to trust that his men would save Hux. After the chaos that Rey and her allies had left behind during the escape, it wasn't hard to authorize the leaving of a ship and Ren masked his concern by putting his thoughts solely on the mission and the scavenger girl.

He had sent his remaining knights after her, chasing her from one world to the next until they finally stood together before the throne of the Emperor. The knowledge of the enemy's gravity had turned enemies into allies for that one moment. Still, it had been a hard fight that could have  
ended in death for both of them, but in the end, it had been Palpatine who now breathed his last breath once and for all. The feeling of victory had only lasted for a short time until they had fallen back into their old roles. It would have been the opportunity to finally eliminate Rey as well, but Ren was weakened and slightly injured and so he let her go. It wouldn't have felt right to kill her anyway after their victory together. She wasn't his primary target right now. There would be another opportunity to finish it. Today it was time for others to die.

Most of the fleet had been destroyed in the battle of Exegol, but the command ship, the Steadfast, was still in orbit when the remaining Resistance ships withdrew and Ren launched his Silencer. Now that he no longer had to hide his thoughts, the anger he had been suppressing all these weeks seethed like acid within him. Pryde would not escape, he swore to himself. Ren would make him pay for what he did. He would destroy them all and take back what was his. No one stopped him when he arrived on the Stardestroyer. The deadly determination was clearly written on his face as he marched down the corridors to the bridge where the High Command had just gathered in a conference room to discuss a tactic retreat. Quite a few of the men flinched when Ren gave a mental command to blow the doors open with such force that they almost broke off their hinges and he suddenly burst into their meeting. Immediately, their thoughts and feelings rushed at him, the fear, the loathing of him and the search for a way out that would not exist. In Ren's eyes, they were as guilty as Pryde was, for they had abandoned him and without hesitation, subjected themselves to another leader. 

But first, he would deal with Pryde. Without the protection of his master, the Allegiant General was just an old man whose reflexes were far too slow to take him on. Even before Pryde could draw his blaster, Ren had already rammed the lightsaber into his body. His eyes, burning with hatred, searched for Pryde's horrified look before he dropped him to the ground and turned to the rest of the officers. Ren raged among them like a berserker. Not one was left alive, but although the noise must have thrown half the ship into turmoil, no one came to their aid. None of the men escaped in his bloodlust and when he could finally think clearly again, he found himself among a field of corpses. With satisfaction, he looked over at the Allegiant General bleeding to death on the ground just in time to see the spark of life in his eyes go out before Ren turned around and left the room like the dark angel of revenge he saw in himself. Not caring for the chaos he left behind, Ren dashed across the bridge, where he gave the order to stay in orbit and wait for his return before crossing the Stardestroyer again to return to the flight deck where he had parked the Silencer.

The engine was still warm from the previous flight when he launched the ship and catapulted himself out into space at breathtaking speed. He had completed his task. Now he would finally fly to his General.

XXXXXX

The indicator lights above the mobile Bacta tank flashed at regular intervals, but Ren could not help but notice that the glass cylinder looked more like a coffin than medical equipment. Although his knights had no training as paramedics, they had done everything they could to save Hux. And they had done their job well by hiding the shuttle in a cave on an uninhabited planet to give him an undisturbed place to heal. From the moment Ren arrived at their hiding place, after he had found out their whereabouts with the Force, they had respectfully retreated to give their master as much privacy as possible.

As Ren mustered the unconscious General, he involuntarily thought of the children's tale his mother had read to him so long ago. About the princess in her glass coffin, who was rescued from her sleep of death with a kiss. It wouldn't be quite as romantic to wake up the General, but in the end all that mattered was that Hux was still alive. After the weeks in the bassin the blaster shot on his leg had already healed. Only a pale scar told of the spot where the former Stormtrooper FN-2187, or Finn as he now called himself, had hit him. The wound in his stomach, however, had been much more severe and they were lucky that he had not died immediately from the sheer force of the shot or the blood loss. Though the day Pryde had shot the general was so long ago, an irregularly granulated wound as big as his hand was still there from the moment his life had hung by a thread, but Hux would survive this last stage of healing even when awake. 

In contrast to the fixed tanks on board the Stardestroyers, the mobile unit was attached horizontally to the shuttle's side, making it easier for the medics to place severely injured soldiers in the glass container without delay. A breathing mask covered the General's mouth and nose to supply him with oxygen, and cables and hoses led to his body to give him medication and infusions and transmit his values to the life-support systems. With one last look at Hux's face, Ren pressed the buttons to inject the drugs that would bring Hux out of unconsciousness, then slowly drained the Bacta fluid into the collection cylinder under the tank until the General's back finally rested in a puddle on the cold underside of the tank. Only then could he release the hydraulics that locked the tank. The bassin made a hissing sound when Ren opened the lid and it smelled like a mixture of disinfectants and the sweetish smell of the Bacta fluid. 

Now that he saw Hux without the annoying glass in front of him, he seemed even more vulnerable and fragile to Ren than he had been before. He was naked, except for his standard gray underpants, and the skin on his hands and feet was swollen and wrinkled from the long time in the liquid. The wet hair lay tangled around his head, making him look younger than he really was. Hux's pale chest rose and fell faintly as he lay in a drug-induced slumber, but the slow rise in his heart rate indicated that his sleep was not as deep as it had been some minutes before. Hux's eyes moved behind the closed eyelids. He was dreaming, a sign that his consciousness was slowly rising to the surface. To minimize the panic when he woke up, Ren carefully loosened the attachment of the breathing mask from Hux's jaw, allowing his fingers to linger a little longer at the point under his ear where he felt his pulse vibrating beneath the skin. Quicker and quicker his heart pumped the blood through his veins, making his body ready to return to life.

Finally, Ren pulled back his hand and sat down on the stretcher next to the tank. Now all he could do was wait and hope that the General's brain had not been damaged by the trauma. The time it took for Hux to finally open his eyes seemed endless, but it probably took less than an hour before he began to wake up. At first, his limbs twitched as if he had a seizure, a delayed, involuntary reaction of his muscles, to the shock of the adrenaline injected into Hux's body by one of the syringes, followed by a tremor that seemed to affect his entire body. His chest suddenly widened, then Hux gasped for breath. His upper body lifted half out of the tank as he reared up and his eyelids flew open as he panicked. It was more instinct, not yet a conscious awakening, Ren could see that clearly as he bent over the General and held him down so he would not hurt himself. Hux's eyes rolled wildly in their sockets without really perceiving Ren or his surroundings. His pulse raced and his breath was shallow and frantic, he was about to hyperventilate. The shock of waking up was too much for his nerve system, but Ren was determined to navigate him through the waves of panic without giving him anything to calm him down. Hux's body had been under enough medication in the last few weeks. 

"It's all right," he said calmly, projecting the feeling into Hux's mind at the same time. "I have got you. You are safe." Although Hux's behavior gave no indication that he had understood him or even heard him, he repeated the words over and over like a mantra, while holding him down at the same time, strong enough to keep him down, but not so strong that he would hurt him. For what felt like an eternity, Hux defended himself against him, banging and kicking and throwing his head back and forth until his resistance finally died down. His breathing rate decreased, his heart beat more quietly, and the wild rearing of his body turned into an unrestrained tremor, so that Ren finally dared to loosen the grip. 

When Hux looked at him again, there was recognition in his gaze. His pupils seemed too big for his eyes and his lips were blue with cold and the after-effects of the anesthetic and they shook so much that he could hardly get a word out. " ... Ren ...", he finally stuttered and this one word made the dark-haired knight almost sick with relief.

He finally released Hux to remove the hoses and cables from his body that still connected him to the life support system before sliding his arms under the wet, trembling body and gently lifting him from the tank onto one of the stretchers. Since Hux was too weak to do it himself, Ren wrapped him in a blanket to dry him off and drive the cold out of his body, and it said something about the General's condition that he did not resist. Helpless as a child, he hung in Ren's arms as he carefully sat down next to him and wordlessly pulled him to his side to offer him protection and warmth with his body. For a long time they said nothing, while Ren's strong hands massaged feeling into his numb limbs and Hux's circulation struggled with the aftermath of unconsciousness. He was dizzy and nauseous and had difficulty making sense of the images that appeared in tatters before his inner eye. What had happened? Where was he? Since the room seemed to be constantly revolving around him, Hux had closed his eyes and his head rested on Ren's shoulder, so that he already believed the General had fallen asleep when his voice, rough from the long time without use, asked a question, which was soft but clearly audible in the silence of the shuttle.

"Pryde?"

"I took care of him," Ren replied, seeing the last moments of the man before him in front of his inner eye, and he couldn't help but feel a deep satisfaction at these thoughts. "He is dead, and so is Palpatine, and what is left of the fleet is now back at your command." He said nothing about the scravenger girl or the resistance. They would talk about that when Hux had recovered enough to return to the Steadfast. Rey might feel safe. Together, they would forge a new plan to bring down the resistance and this time, no imperial traitor or presumed dead Emporer would come and dissuade them from that goal.

The End

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own any right to Star Wars, the characters or to the lyrics. Mine is only the idea of the story and I don't earn money with my writing. I do it only for the love of the writing itself.


End file.
